Page 96 of Bonds of Obsession

“Because they’re a bunch of sick fucks,” Atlas says. “The fact that they think you murdered a pregnant woman in cold blood, and now they like you better for it? Sick.”

“Fucking animals,” Killian agrees, still petting Princess through the carrier bars.

Nico’s jaw clenches as he takes a sharp turn. “That’s probably what they want—for everyone to be as fucked up as they are. It’s a hell of a lot easier to control people when you can hang all the horrible shit they’ve done over their heads.”

I haven’t thought about it that way before, but he’s probably right. “Makes me wonder what other tasks they’ll expect me to handle now that they think I’m capable of anything.”

“We’ll deal with that when it comes,” Atlas says. “One clusterfuck at a time.”

I’m too tired to think about the next clusterfuck already. Instead, I twist in my seat to look at Killian. “Where exactly did that hand come from?”

I know I shouldn’t ask, but I can’t help it. My curiosity has gotten the best of me. I’m also wondering how deeply in debt someone would have to be in order to give up a whole fucking hand.

“Like I said,” he shrugs. “I called in a favor.”

When it’s obvious none of us are going to let him stop there, he huffs out a short breath. “There’s a guy at Detroit Memorial who owed me after I helped him end a little disagreement he was having with some bookies.” Killian scratches under Princess’s chin. “He had access to the morgue. He found a hand that was the right size and right age. It’s the same source I used to get the bags of blood.”

I can’t even pretend not to be impressed. “You think of everything, don’t you?”

“I have to.” His green eyes meet mine again. “Especially when it comes to protecting what’s mine.”

The weight of his words hits me right in the chest, but before I can respond, Atlas’s sharp intake of breath cuts through the air.

“What the fuck?” Nico mutters, slamming on the brakes so hard we all jerk forward.

I straighten in my seat and look out the windshield, following Nico’s gaze. Up ahead, flames and smoke color the sky like something straight out of hell.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Killian says.

“No,” I whisper, but there’s no denying what I’m seeing. My house—my father’s house—is on fire.

31

ATLAS

It seemslike the flames are everywhere, even reflecting off the windows of the neighboring houses. A strangled noise tears from her throat, and before any of us can react, she’s out of the car and running toward the inferno.

For a moment, I’m completely frozen, watching the fire consume everything. It takes me back to another day, another fire, the one that burned our clubhouse to the ground. The heat, the destruction, the feeling of being helpless to save any of our belongings.

The stark memory locks my muscles for a second before I realize what Quinn is about to do.

“Fuck!” I run after her, ignoring the growing heat and my own wounds in the process. My arms wrap around her waist just as she reaches the front walk, yanking her back against me. The movement pulls at my stitches, but I don’t give a shit. Better torn stitches than a dead Quinn.

“Vicious, goddammit!” I have to yell in her ear to get her attention as she thrashes against me. “You can’t go in there!”

“I need to—I have to! Let me go!” Her elbow catches me in the ribs, making me grunt in pain. But I don’t loosen my grip.I can’t. The thought of her trying to run in there and getting overtaken by those flames?

No.

Fuck that.

“The whole fucking place is about to collapse,” I tell her. My throat already feels scratchy from yelling and from the acrid smoke already filling the air. “I’m not letting you kill yourself.”

The heat intensifies as something inside the house explodes, sending a shower of sparks into the night sky. The force of it nearly knocks us both off our feet. Sweat runs down my back as I hold her tighter, every protective instinct I have screaming at me to get her farther away from the blaze.

She fights me like a wild animal, all nails and elbows as she tries to break free. “Let me go!” she screams, her voice raw. “My father’s things—I have to—” She chokes on a sob that rips straight through my chest.

Nico and Killian catch up, helping me hold her back as the heat from the flames scorches our skin. I know the desperate need burning in her eyes, the pain that’s driving her to try to rush into certain death. I’ve felt that kind of desperation and pain before, and it kills me that I can’t do a fucking thing to stop it for her. I’d gladly absorb it all in a minute if I could.

---